Today we celebrate International Women’s Day. The history of International Women’s Day
dates back to the struggles of working women in the United States and Russia in the early
20th century. Although many advances have been made since this time in fighting against
gender oppression, patriarchy not only still exists but fundamentally influences every
aspect of our lives. The fight against patriarchy in all of its forms is a central part of
any true struggle for revolutionary change; and it is integrally linked to the struggle
against capitalism, the state and all other forms of oppression. The struggle against
gender oppression is not about women gaining access to, and utilizing, the positions and
tools of oppression that have been used to oppress them; the struggle is a struggle to
abolish these positions and tools of oppression in order to liberate both the oppressed,
as well as those benefiting- however unhealthily- from oppression.

The struggle has developed, identifying more sources of gender oppression rooted in an
all-pervasive and intersectionally-linked patriarchal system. Just some of these fronts of
struggle include confronting the gender binary system, essentialization of roles and
expectations, disempowering socialization processes, repressive dominant cultural mores,
elite control of the body, objectification and commodification of the body, gender
restrictions around sexual practices, and so much more. However, it is essential to
remember that development of these early struggles of working women does not and should
not mean development away from such struggles. In the United States and around the world
the centrality of the struggle against capitalism and other forms of oppression to the
struggle against gender oppression remains fundamental to a truly liberatory movement
against patriarchy. So on this International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity as, and
with, the gender oppressed and the many global struggles that centrally challenge the
various forms of patriarchy in our lives as part of a broad movement against capitalism,
the state and all forms of oppression!